Delaney was talking, but she was at the far end of a cavernous ballroom, God knew why, with her volume set to Murmur. But as she came closer, he was happy to see the room shrink and brighten as the volume came up.
“‘Don’t confront anybody until I get back.’” She was standing over him with a wry expression. “That’s what you said.”
“Should’ve taken my own advice,” he managed, then saw she was holding a cold can
(condensation has never looked wetter or sexier)
of ginger ale. “I’ll marry you if you give that to me right now.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna pass on the proposal, but you can have a drink anyway.” She cracked it open and held it for him while he lurched up on his elbows and took greedy, slurping sips. “Easy! You’re just going to throw it up again if you don’t take it easy.”
“If this is Hell—and I’m almost positive it is—does that make you Satan?”
“Nope. I’m just a low-level demonic functionary,” she deadpanned.
“Lillith! Is she okay? Ohhhhhhh,” he moaned, slumping back and slamming his eyes shut. “I sat up too fast.”
“See? She’s fine. Sofia’s helping her make you a tray.”
“No trays. No traaaaays. Unless there’s something on it I can use to kill myself, like a thirty-eight. Or enough dental floss to fashion a noose.”
“No, just crackers and broth. But I have to admit, I’m impressed.”
He cracked one eye open to look at her. This sounded promising. “Yeah?”
“I had no idea your superpower was the ability to vomit at will on anyone you confront.”
“Only in Venice. Where’d the asshole scamper off to?”
“Are you kidding?” Delaney sounded equal parts amused and admiring. “He was horrified and dripping and got the hell out of there. We were too busy with you to go catch him.”
“And can I assume calling the cops isn’t an option because of all the secret weirdness and the weird secrets?”
Delaney stopped smiling and (wonders!) looked uncomfortable. “Yeah, pretty much. We can’t have them looking at us, just like you don’t want the local government to know you’re in town.”
“Or the Parks and Rec guys.” He had no idea if Italian civil servants held grudges, and no wish to find out.
“But I don’t like it. And I’m starting to think there’s gotta be a way around it.”
“Okay, so … figure something out, and is it just me, or do you have tunnel vision, too?” he managed before sleep grabbed him and hauled him under again.
Some amount of time later, he swam back to soupy semiconsciousness, reached out, groped, and accidentally
“Ow!”
poked someone in the eye.
So he opened his. “Oh, Lillith, thank God. If you love me, you’ll kill me. Kill Daddy, please. Right now.”
“Oh, now you acknowledge me?” She was looking down at him and nibbling her lower lip. “I’m sorry you’re sick. I googled and I think it’s gastroenteritis. That’s why you’re throwing up and have a fever, from jumping—”
“Falling.”
“—into sewage and vomit and merda and other yucky stuff.”
“There’s no need to specify,” he groaned. “You could have stuck with yucky stuff.”
“Do you want to go to the hospital?”
“No. I want to die in this bed. Preferably within the next ten seconds.”
“Because I’ll take you, if you want to go. I know I’m supposed to listen to Delaney, but I don’t care what she says on this one. Not everyone in authority is out to get her family.”
“Her what?”
“Shall I take you to a doctor?”
He blinked at her. Lillith looked as earnest as she sounded as she stared down at him. “How?” He didn’t actually want to go; he was just curious about the process. “You’re little. How would you even get me to an ER?” Borrow a cell phone? Berate one of the others into obeying her command? Steal an ambulance? He felt confident she was capable of all that and more.
“Don’t know. But I’d think of something.”
“I believe it.”
“Thanks for coming to get me.”
“You should have waited,” he reminded her gently.
“Yeah. I should have done a lot of stuff. Pulled away. Kicked. Yelled! But I just froze like a manichino.”
“Or like someone having a perfectly normal reaction to…” He paused, stifled a belch. Waited. Apparently the ginger ale was staying put on a trial basis. “… to stress.”
“It wasn’t that. I started thinking about Mama and wondering what she’d do. And then I thought maybe I should go with him, try to figure out what they want. Or let him get me outside and yell for help until the polizia came. But before I could make up my mind, you drove him off with your vomit.”
“Possibly my finest moment,” he agreed with a chuckle.
He felt her small hand curl into his. “But you didn’t know I was thinking up a plan. And you came to get me anyway.”
“Yeah, course I did.”
“So are we friends now?”
He blinked at her. “Well.” He’d saved her. She was saving him. “Yeah. I suppose we are. Which is a bit of a new thing for me.”
“How come? You’re nice. And usually rich. You prob’ly have lots of friends.”
“Fair-weather friends,” he corrected her. “The kind who disappear if they think I’m not picking up the bill. This is gonna sound dumb, but I’d say Blake is probably my best friend.”
“But you hate him.”
“No.” He shook his head at her. She looked earnest and focused, like this was the most important conversation of her life; the least he could do was be honest. “No, I complain about him—”
“A lot.”
“—occasionally, but I love him and he loves me. If he were here, he’d be kicking ass all over the place on my behalf. And he’s the same way—I’m probably his best friend, though he’d choke before admitting it.”
“Well, now you have two friends. Right? Rake?”
“Yes, absolutely. It’s a tiny elite group and you’re now a member in good standing. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He stifled a yawn. Ginger ale staying inside? Check. Roof over his head, however temporarily? Check. Delaney amused and Lillith safe? Check-check. “Think I’m gonna sleep some more. Don’t go off with any weirdos without coming to get me first.”
“Define weirdo.”
He was out before he could oblige.